The Easy Way Out

After conceding the presidency to Donald Trump, The Hillary Clinton Machine quickly turned its attention to Russia. For the last eight months Russia has been the thing to talk about on CNN and MSNBC, two of the largest water-carriers for the Democratic establishment.

But while there was always smoke, no fire had presented itself. It was like one of those stupid 500-word essays you had to write in high school about a topic you didn’t give a shit about; it was a conclusion in search of evidence. Rather than owning the blame for running the worst campaign in the history of the United States, one that delivered Donald Trump to the White House, or addressing any of the issues Americans are dealing with, Hillary Clinton decided to pin the blame on Russia.

Oh, it was also the fault of all the people who voted 3rd party. It was James Comey’s fault. It was Bernie Sanders’s fault for staying in the race too long. It was the media’s fault for how they covered Trump.

It was everybody’s fault except Hillary’s.

Donald Trump is an idiot, and idiots tend to fuck things up. He just couldn’t help himself. After firing James Comey last week — something that Democrats were calling for right until the point Trump actually fired him — recently The Washington Post reported that Trump released classified information in a meeting he recently had with a Russian ambassador. I’m told that’s a big no-no.

In a way this is disappointing, not because I’m anti-truth but that, in a way, it sort of validates what the Democrats have been calling for — whether rightfully or wrongfully. I have written at length and ad nauseam that all Democrats have been doing is sweating out the Trump campaign. Waiting for it to crack, or self-destruct altogether. It was the simple, if not totally obvious, strategy.

And yet I feel like if you are a Democrat, and this is what you’ve been hoping for all along, that it makes you either misinformed or a coward. This was, after all, the easy way out. It was always the easy way out. In this case there is nothing noble about that, not when so much is wrong with the two-party system and at a time when so many Americans are hurting.

See, assuming Trump does himself in and he is forced into resignation or impeachment — which seems like a forgone conclusion at this point — it means the establishment will be vindicated by some degree. It means they won’t be pushed into changing any of their policies, most notably assuming business as usual and accepting corporate PAC money.

This goes without saying that I don’t believe very much will change whether Trump is in office or Mike Pence, his Vice President. The Republicans will still be looking to pass a far-right wing healthcare plan; they will perpetuate the war on drugs; they will continue with the seven foreign wars America is engaged with; they will still cave to the fossil fuel industry and continue killing the environment; they will still push to get equal time for Jesus in charter schools funded by my tax dollars; and, perhaps most importantly, they will keep gutting voting rights.

If anything, having Trump in office has been a blessing. Because there is no better recruiting tool for the left than Donald Trump himself.

And for the Democrats, what will they have to turn to without a Russia scandal? They will remain in the same position, the same fight, against Progressives. There are numerous organizations that have propped up big league since the election — from Democratic Socialists of America, to Brand New Congress, to Justice Democrats — who are still going to primary the shit out of the failed establishment.

The real fight establishment Democrats are engaged with is not Donald Trump. It’s with the true left-wing of their own party. That fight isn’t going anywhere. It was there a year ago, it’s been here for the entirety of the Trump/Russia thing, and it will be there tomorrow and next month and 2018.

I am probably in the minority here, but I want Donald Trump in office — as opposed to Mike Pence — for as long as possible. He gives many struggling Americans the dirty, corrupt face they need to organize and rally against; Pence, on the other hand, will attempt to pass the same horrible shit, only with a gentler persona.

Establishment Democrats are hell-bent on getting Trump out of office. So much so that they have muddied the waters with their own supporters into what the actual goal is of the supposed opposition party. Is it merely to succeed in removing Trump? Because what happens if they get their wish?

They will be in the same position they were in during the general election. A general election, I should reiterate, that saw Hillary Clinton and the Democrats get completely wiped out. They will still be in-fighting with Progressives. They will still be voting to approve tax cuts for the millionaires and billionaires. They will still have nothing to offer the working class and middle class.

If you want to know how fucked up things are in the Democratic Party, look no further than Hillary Clinton herself. Right now she is creating Super PACS to help fund corporate Democrats in the House and Senate in advance of their Progressive challengers in 2018. This is how far the party will go to maintain the status quo, to make sure that people don’t get candidates who are for single-payer healthcare and a higher minimum wage and free college.

There will be a blood bath in 2018. Right now the Democrats believe it will occur between themselves and Republicans, thinking Americans will be so fed up with the craziness of the Trump administration that they would be willing to vote for just about anything else. I believe this is wish-thinking. The real carnage will come from the left, who seem poised for a takeover of several seats in the House and perhaps a couple in the Senate. You have to offer people something to vote for.

It should say something to the Democrats that, even at a time when Donald Trump has exceptionally low approval ratings, they are polling even worse. People are desperate for them to come out in support of single-payer, or anything, really. Instead party leaders like Hillary Clinton are helping generate obscene amounts of money to oppose the very people who want to deliver that. Democrats care more about stifling Progressives than they do defeating the Republicans.

That is what made Russia the perfect distraction for the Democrats: it gave them something to talk about without having to address any of the real issues Americans are dealing with. They didn’t have to take any responsibility for losing the election. They didn’t have to change any of their policies. They needed simply to find a worthy scapegoat, and wait.

Funny that, after all these months, the best strategy the Democrats have come up with remains attempting to run out the clock. I mean, it worked out pretty well in November, didn’t it?